Biography

Electra Gizeli is a Professor in the Dept. of Biology at the University of Crete and Affiliated Researcher at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB) at the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH). Since 2018 she has been the Deputy Director at IMBB-FORTH. Previous to the above, she had two post-doc visiting fellowships at the EPFL, Lausanne and Sandia National Labs, Albuquerque, USA, and spent five years as a Group Leader at the Inst. of Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge where she also served as a College Lecturer. She received her BSc in Chemistry from the Univ. of Athens, MSc in Biotechnology from UCL and PhD in Acoustic Biosensors from the Univ. of Cambridge, UK. She has been the recipient of the BBSRC Junior Fellowship, the Leviner Distinguished Visiting Fellowship and an Adjunct Professorship from Marquette Univ, the USA. Work carried out in her group on mobile molecular diagnostics has received several Innovation awards (Nokia, Finland; Innovate Greece, etc.). In 1997 she was elected a Fellow of Sydney Sussex College in the Un. of Cambridge and since 2016 she has been a Fellow οf the Royal Society of Chemistry, UK. She has served as an industrial consultant and as a member of the experts' committee for defining the area of advanced micro-nano-bio systems and devices in Greece. Currently, she is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Joint Undertaking EDCP3 and evaluator of numerous funding bodies (Welcome-Trust; the EU; HFSP etc.).

Her scientific interests include biosensor and biophysics as well as nanotechnology, molecular diagnostics, and micro-engineering (90 publications, h=36). The transfer of innovative concepts from the lab to the end-user has been a main focus of her work, with emphasis on the development of molecular diagnostic tools at the point-of-care for global application in healthcare and agrofood safety. She is the co-founder of two spin-out companies of IMBB-FORTH. Her work has been supported by international (HFSP), European (EU) and national (BBSRC, GSRI, DAAD) organizations as well as the industry. She has coordinated >20 multidisciplinary projects with several participants each, raising a total budget of >20M €. In her labs in the Univ. of Cambridge and Univ. of Crete/IMBB she has trained 22 post-doc, 15 PhD, and >50 MSc and undergraduate students.